Karapetyan was born on September 11, 1962, in Stepanakert in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, then a part of the Azerbaijan SSR.

[2] The article was based on Karapetyan's questioning by the Special Investigative Service of Armenia in relation to the March 1 case, a copy of which the BBC acquired.

During the questioning, Karapetyan confirmed that he commanded a unit brought to Yerevan from Nagorno-Karabakh during the March 1 events but denied that there was any order to shoot people.

After the contents of the questioning were made public, Karapetyan confirmed the authenticity of the document, reiterated that there was no order to fire upon protestors and declared his readiness to repeat what he said during his interrogation at the trial of ex-president Robert Kocharyan.

He was soon released after signing an affidavit not to leave the country and charged with hooliganism and illegal possession of a weapon.